Alleging that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) described as Maoist anyone who dared protest against its acts of terror, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday that the time had come for it “to get out and get lost.”
Addressing an election rally at Sonamukhi in Bankura district, parts of which have witnessed Maoist activity, she accused the CPI(M) of spreading terror in the region where anyone opposed to it was branded Maoist. “This has been its tactics in the region all along,” Ms. Banerjee said, even as she rubbished the charge that her party had links with the left-wing extremists.
Pointing out that four phases of polling in the State were over, she said: “The voting has been spontaneous, and unlike previous occasions, there could be no rigging.”
The on-going Assembly polls were “more a fight between the Left Front and maa, mati, manush (the Trinamool Congress slogan which translated reads –mother, soil, people) than between the CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress, with us (the Trinamool Congress) being the representatives of the people,” she added.
Attacking the Left Front for ‘non-performance,' she said: “What the CPI(M) could not do in 35 years we will try to achieve over the next five years…For the past 35 years it [the CPI(M)] did not find time to even think of Purulia and Bankura, but now is asking for another mandate. The people have decided that it will not get anymore chances.”
She accused the Left Front government of taking the State into bankruptcy and warned that if it were returned to power, government employees would not get their salaries “as all the money has been taken away by the CPI(M).”
Holding the CPI(M) responsible for “closing down factories in the State” and evicting people from their land, Ms. Banerjee said: “Our slogan is rice for all, jobs for all.”
“There will be no eviction of people from their land even as we pursue our plans for development,” she added.
“I have done as much as I could for you in the Railways,” Ms. Banerjee, who is also the Union Railway Minister, said, even as she promised plans for further development of the region if the Trinamool came to power in the State.
As for her on-going election campaign, she described it as “a hectic job.”
“It began on April 2; it has been a month and three days since, and includes between 170 to 180 election rallies if the padayatras I have joined in are to be included.”
